More than a third of boys take up gambling before they turn 18, according to a new report from Common Sense Media that explores the concerning and explosive growth into adolescent boys’ gambling habits.
Betting on Boys: Understanding Gambling Among Adolescent Boys details the role video games, social media algorithms and peers play in introducing and enabling gambling among young people. Among the more than 1,000 adolescent boys age 11 to 17 surveyed across the U.S., 36 percent said they’d gambled in the last year, with that number varying from nearly a third of 11-year-olds to nearly half of 17-year-olds.
“Boys are gambling from a very early age,” Common Sense Media Founder and CEO James P. Steyer said in a statement. “Through the games they play, the social media platforms they use every day, and their friends, gambling has become a fact of many boys’ day-to-day lives — and often in ways parents may not recognize. Without safeguards and support, many boys may be forming risky relationships with gambling before they fully understand the consequences.”
Adolescent gambling can take on different forms. For instance, online gaming-related gambling that occurs within video games or involves game-related items and currency (such as exchanging real money for random, chance-based rewards in games or trading or betting using in-game items acquired with real money) isn’t always legally or academically defined as gambling.
However, they share key characteristics that may shape later gambling habits, including traditional gambling activities (e.g. online or in-person poker, blackjack or dice games with friends, family or strangers for real money) or sports-related gambling (e.g. March Madness brackets or fantasy leagues, sports betting, daily fantasy sports or esports betting for real money).
According to the report, boys’ exposure to gambling in digital spaces often appears to come through algorithmic recommendations, with nearly half of adolescent boys who gamble reportedly having seen online material that promotes gambling. Researchers noted that while boys who gamble only spend an average of $54 annually, there is a significant divide between higher-loss and lower-loss gamblers, with higher-loss gamblers demonstrating different patterns of motivation, spending and engagement, such as using their parents’ credit cards without permission.
Other key findings show that:
- Nearly one in four boys participate in game-based activities that mimic gambling, with the majority regularly spending real money.
- About one in eight boys bet on sports, and about the same number participate in traditional gambling, with 14- to 17-year-olds participating significantly more often than 11- to 13-year-olds.
- Six in 10 boys report seeing gambling ads on YouTube and social media, though most say ads don’t prompt them to gamble.
- Gambling is far more common among boys whose friends gamble. More than eight in 10 gamble themselves if their friends do, compared to under two in 10 boys whose friends don’t gamble.
- More than one in four boys who gamble — particularly frequent gamblers and those with friends who gamble — report stress or conflict, though most deny serious harm.
- One-third of boys have gambled with family members.
Recommendations
The report includes recommendations for parents, educators, industry leaders and policymakers.
“Schools are uniquely positioned to help students develop critical thinking about money, risk, and digital persuasion,” the report states. “While this research focuses on gambling, it’s one manifestation of a larger issue. Kids are saturated with messaging that promotes unrealistic wealth-building, instant gratification, and risky financial behavior. The underlying skills (understanding probability, evaluating “get rich quick” schemes, and recognizing how platforms profit from risky behavior) are essential life skills that extend far beyond betting.”
Recommendations for educators include:
Integrating financial and digital literacy across curricula. “Gambling education doesn’t require a standalone course,” according to the report. “The key is helping students connect financial concepts to what they’re actually experiencing in their digital lives.”
For instance, math classes can teach probability, expected value and odds, helping students understand why “the house always wins” and evaluate claims about “easy money,” while health education can address risk-taking, addiction and decision-making around gambling and other high-risk behaviors.
Financial literacy courses should include discussions on evaluating investment claims and recognizing manipulative marketing around betting and other financial products. And digital literacy coursework can provide an opportunity to examine how platforms use persuasive design to encourage risky financial behavior; help students recognize and analyze gambling advertising tactics; understand how sports betting apps use psychological techniques to encourage continued betting; and evaluate claims in promotions and celebrity endorsements. Students in these courses can also examine topics including “how the creator economy promotes unrealistic wealth narratives and learn to identify survivorship bias in influencer earnings,” the report states. This can be connected “to the broader ‘get rich quick’ mentality that permeates online spaces, from crypto schemes to drop-shipping courses to gambling itself.”
Partnering with families to amplify prevention messages and ensure consistency across spaces. Schools can provide resources for parents and caregivers on recognizing gambling-like behavior and having conversations about gambling with their children, and encourage adults to model healthy attitudes and behaviors toward gambling and money management.
Addressing peer influence by training staff to recognize signs of gambling activity, such as students sharing gambling apps, placing informal bets, playing card games for money, or discussing wins and losses, and equipping them to respond with education rather than punitive measures. If gambling behavior is identified among a peer group, educators can reduce stigma, encourage honesty and connect gambling to issues that students are already navigating by addressing it collectively as part of a broader conversation about digital wellness, money management and how platforms design for engagement and spending, according to researchers.
It’s also important that schools establish clear, communicated policies on gambling-related activities on school grounds or devices.
